Reid and Ethan Go On a Field Trip
by raspberry truffles
Summary: Reid gets roped into chaperoning one of Ethan's field trips.


Title: Reid and Ethan Go On a Field Trip

Pairing: Luke and Reid

Other Characters: Natalie, Ethan, Ethan's classmates, Bruce and Penn, Ethan's teacher Ms. Marshall, assorted classmates, Penn's mother, and Lucinda.

Summary: Lily was supposed to drive on Ethan's field trip to the Aquarium but she forgot and is in Chicago for a Spa weekend. Luke has an important meeting at Grimaldi shipping and can't fill in, so Reid, who has a rare day off has been called into service.

Setting: Luke and Reid are in a committed relationship, but they are not yet living together.

Disclaimer: These are not my characters they all belong to ATWT and its parent company(ies). All mistakes are mine.

Rating: G

Friday morning Luke woke Natalie and Ethan up so that they could get ready for school. Natalie complained that it was too early to get up, but managed to roll out of bed and come downstairs for breakfast.

Ethan was excited to go to school, so he bounded out of bed, got dressed and ran downstairs for breakfast. Luke had gotten up to prepare blueberry pancakes with maple syrup, bacon and strawberries. He also had a pitcher of fresh squeezed orange juice and a jug of cold milk.

"Wow Luke, thanks for making us breakfast," Ethan said with a big grin just before he began shovelling food into his mouth.

"You're welcome Ethan," Luke smiled fondly at his younger brother, "Just make sure that you taste the food before you swallow it."

Ethan rolled his eyes.

Natalie sat down and helped herself to a small bowl of strawberries.

"Don't you want any pancakes?" Luke asked, frowning.

"No," Natalie shuddered. "Too many carbs."

"Natalie, you need to eat a proper breakfast. Have at least one pancake, and one strip of bacon."

"All right," Natalie grumbled.

"Are you looking forward to coming to the 'quarium as much as me?" Ethan asked Luke.

"What are you talking about?"

"The field trip, my whole class is going to the 'quarium today and you're driving.

"What?" Luke asked starting to panic. "I can't drive today; I have a big meeting at 11:00 this morning.

"Luke, you have to drive. Mom volunteered and my teacher is counting on you to drive, otherwise we won't be able to go," Ethan pouted with his big round eyes shining.

Luke quickly phoned the school to apprise them of the situation.

The secretary informed him that he was needed to drive and that the field trip would have to be cancelled if he couldn't do it himself, or find a suitable replacement. She also gave him a stern lecture about honouring one's commitments.

Luke apologized and promised to try and straighten out the situation.

Then he called the one person he had come to rely on in the hopes that Reid would be able to help out.

"This had better be important Luke," Reid grunted into the phone.

"Uh, hi Reid," Luke took a deep breath. "I um… need a favour."

"What is it?"

"Uh… I know that it's your day off today, and well I need you to drive Ethan to the aquarium for his field trip."

"Are you kidding me?" Reid asked, now fully awake and horrified.

"Look, I know this isn't your first choice, but my mother volunteered, and she must have forgotten, because she's in Chicago, so can't drive. I can't go because I have that huge meeting at Grimaldi."

"Doesn't your mother keep a calendar of her commitments?" Reid muttered mostly to himself.

"Please Reid," Luke begged. "I really don't want to let Ethan down."

"Fine," Reid sighed, resigned to his fate. "You owe me, Luke and don't think for a second that I won't collect."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," Luke practically squealed into the phone, while giving Ethan the thumbs up sign. "Don't worry, I always pay my debts," he whispered huskily into the phone.

"You'd better," Reid warned. "Now, what time do I need to be at Ethan's school?"

"Uh," Luke hesitated for a second. "As close to 9:00 as you can make it, I'm sorry that it's such short notice."

"Luke!" Reid exclaimed. "Bloody hell it's 8:25! I've got to go if I have any chance of getting there at all." He complained before slamming the phone down and heading to the bathroom to get ready. "Bloody Lily," he muttered to himself as he got into the shower.

At 9:00 exactly, Reid walked into Ethan's classroom and was greeted by a huge smile on Ethan's face.

Reid smiled back, but not quite as enthusiastically.

"Ms. Marshall he's here, he's really here," Ethan announced to his teacher who was looking down at her clipboard.

"Ah, Mr. Oliver," Ms. Marshall greeted warmly reaching out to shake his hand.

"Dr. Oliver," Reid corrected coolly, ignoring her outstretched hand.

"Er… uh yes, sorry," she replied uncertainly. "Thank you for pitching in for Mrs. Snyder. Luke dropped off your paper work with Ethan earlier, and we are delighted that you were able to help out on this educational field trip."

"Paper work?" Reid inquired. "What are you talking about?"

"Before interacting with the children in this state, you have to have a criminal record check as well as a clean driving record. Luke kindly had them both printed out and sent them to school with Ethan," she explained, smiling.

Reid just nodded, unable to speak at the moment.

Ms. Marshall returned to her clipboard and started calling out the names of the children and assigning them to the different drivers. Much to Reid's horror he found out that he wasn't just driving Ethan, he was also driving two of his classmates, Penn and Bruce.

Ms. Marshall then handed each driver a map to the aquarium and explained that the class was to meet at the front entrance.

Finally, she turned to Reid and asked if he would mind if she tagged along with him.

"Yes," he answered emphatically, but Ethan jumped in with, "that would be great Ms. Marshall, that way we'll know just where to go."

Reid appreciated Ethan's point, and merely nodded to the teacher and led the way to his car.

As they all got settled in Reid's car, Ms. Marshall ensured that all three boys were buckled securely into their seatbelts.

"OK, Dr. Oliver, it's safe to get going now," she smiled at him.

Reid just stared at her and counted to ten as he pulled out of the parking lot.

"Do you know how to get to the aquarium or would you like me to navigate?" Ms. Marshall asked helpfully.

Ethan snickered in the back seat.

"I know the way," Reid responded through gritted teeth.

"OK great!" she responded with a lot more enthusiasm than Reid was comfortable with. "Tell me about yourself? What kind of doctor are you? Are you a paediatrician, or maybe a family practitioner? Luke really didn't give me any details."

Reid was appalled, "I'm a neurosurgeon," he replied coldly, hoping to halt all further conversation.

"Oh," she responded, clearly impressed. "Wow that must be really interesting. Perhaps you could come into the classroom sometime and tell the children about your work."

"No," Reid replied firmly.

"Well, perhaps you could check your schedule and get back to me," Ms. Marshall suggested, clearly surprised by his reticence.

"No," Reid said again. "Now if you don't mind I would like to concentrate on my driving."

"Oh," she replied feeling flustered. "Of course, I'm sorry to have distracted you. Perhaps I will find another driver to take me back to the school."

"Excellent," Reid answered.

They drove the rest of the way in silence. Even the boys were quiet.

When they arrived at the aquarium, Reid asked the teacher where he should drop them off and what time he should come back to pick them up.

"What do you mean? You have to come on the field trip with us. Ethan, Penn and Bruce are in your group. You're responsible for them for the day. Didn't Luke explain this to you?"

"No," Reid said through gritted teeth.

"Oh well I'm sure that he assumed that you'd understand your responsibilities. All the drivers know that they are required to stay," Ms. Marshall responded in that voice that all teachers seem to have that leaves no room for debate.

"Fine," Reid sighed, turning into the parking lot.

"Don't worry, Reid," Ethan said smiling up at him. "Luke packed a lunch for you too. I have it in my bag."

"Great," Reid replied weakly.

The morning went fairly smoothly, with Reid leading Ethan and his friends through the various displays. Reid knew a lot about the various sea animals that they were looking at and occasionally mentioned how tasty one or another was to eat. The boys giggled at those remarks.

Just before lunch, Ethan tugged at Reid's hand.

"I have to go to the bathroom," he reported, urgently.

"Okay," Reid replied. "You can go."

"No," Ethan cried. "We all hafta go together, otherwise it's not safe."

Reid looked at the other two boys who were nodding in agreement.

"OK," Reid sighed. "Let's go and find the restroom."

Reid quickly spotted the nearest facilities and took the boys over to them.

"I'll wait here for you three," Reid said and then stepped aside.

"No," Ethan frowned. "You need to come in with us to make sure that we all wash our hands properly."

Reid rolled his eyes, but followed the young boys inside.

After what felt like an eternity to Reid, he led the three boys back to the exhibits, after watching them each wash their hands. He happened to notice that Penn had forgotten to zip up his pants and helpfully pointed that out to the boy.

At 12:00 Reid was to take his group back to the main entrance to meet up with the rest of their group in order to have lunch. Not surprisingly Reid's was the first group to arrive.

Ms. Marshall and her group were the second with everyone else quickly following suit.

Ms. Marshall then led the group outside to a lovely picnic spot. Reid noticed that most of the drivers sat together along with Ms. Marshall while the kids sat together.

Ethan and Reid were the exception. Reid had no desire to sit with the other adults and Ethan didn't want Reid to have to eat alone.

"You can eat with your friends if you like," Reid suggested, not wanting Ethan to be unhappy.

"Nah, I can sit with them any old time. I'd much rather eat with you," Ethan replied with a grin.

"Did you ever think that I might want to sit with the other adults?" Reid asked innocently.

"Not at all," Ethan giggled.

"You're right," Reid admitted handing Ethan a bottle of hand sanitizer to clean his hands.. "Okay, let's see what Luke packed for us. I hope he did a good job!"

"Me too," Ethan agreed.

Luke had done a great job. Fortunately Emma had stopped by the night before to stock up the fridge at Lily's place.

Luke had made Reid an enormous turkey sandwich with Emma's homemade cranberry sauce, roasted turkey breast and stuffing, in a separate container he had placed lettuce, red pepper rings, cucumber rounds and a thinly sliced kosher dill pickle so that Reid could add them just before he ate the sandwich so that it wouldn't be soggy. Luke had also sent along a large piece of Emma's apple pie, a thermos of hot coffee, a thermos of cold milk, an apple and a bag of salt and vinegar chips. Luke also included a napkin and a special thank you note.

Reid thanks again for looking after Ethan! I really appreciate it! I hope that you enjoy your lunch.

Love Luke 3333

Reid smiled and then looked over and saw that Ethan had a much smaller version of his lunch.

Just as Reid was about to inhale his piece of apple pie, he heard Ethan gasp.

"Grandmother, what are you doing here?" Ethan asked his eyes as big as saucers. His grandmother had never, ever been on one of his or any of his siblings' fieldtrips before this.

"There you are my darling boys," Lucinda responded sitting down gracefully beside Reid. "How are you holding up?"

"Fine," Reid responded around a mouthful of pie.

"Glad to hear it," she nodded in approval. "Luke thought you might require a…familiar face on this little excursion of yours."

Reid laughed. "So he sent you as his replacement, did he?"

"Darling he desperately wanted to join you, but this meeting was too important to reschedule. When he realized that he would be busy for most of the day, he sent me a text, begging me to come straight over and check on you."

"Of course he did," Reid chuckled.

Ms. Marshall suddenly appeared. "Who are you?" she asked Lucinda, pointedly.

"I am Lucinda Walsh,"

"Well I'm afraid that I'm going to have to ask you to leave, as I don't have a criminal records report on you, I can't have you interacting with the children. I hope that you understand."

Reid was thankful that he hadn't been drinking during this exchange.

"My dear, I assure you that I will not be interacting with the children, Ethan is my grandson, and I can assure you that I do have far greater access to him than you do. I merely came to ensure that both my grandson and Reid were satisfied with this outing," Lucinda sniffed. "Everything seems okay, for now; otherwise I would be forced to report to Bill. I'm sure you know Bill, Miss…"

"Ms. Marshall," she replied quietly, not really sure who Bill was, and not wanting to find out.

"Bill Anderson, the superintendent of schools in Illinois, he and I are old friends," Lucinda added pointedly.

"Of course," Ms. Marshall muttered. "Well Dr. Oliver, Ethan I think that it's time to gather everyone and get back to the exhibits."

"Lucinda, would you like to stay?" Reid asked in order to needle Ms. Marshall, who tensed while waiting for the answer.

"Darling, I would love to stay," Lucinda paused, noting the tension increase in the teacher's stance. "Unfortunately I simply must get back to the office. I'll see you both later," she finished with a wink.

"Thanks for stopping by," Reid smiled.

"Bye Grandmother," Ethan added.

The rest of the afternoon continued without incident. Ethan and his friends loved the aquarium and seeing all of the sea life.

Reid found that he didn't hate spending the afternoon with Ethan and his classmates, but he wasn't sad when it was time to lead the boys back to the lobby where they had been asked to meet.

"Well it's time to go back to the school," Ms. Marshall announced once all of the groups had assembled. "I wanted to take a moment to thank all of the drivers. These field trips wouldn't be possible without you!"

Reid rolled his eyes and led his trio back to the car. He checked to make sure that they were all buckled before driving back to the school.

The boys were laughing and playing in the back seat but Reid was able to ignore the noise until he heard Ethan shout, "We need a bag, Right Now!"

It was too late; Penn threw up all over Bruce who quickly followed suit!

"You did not just throw up in my car!" Reid cried in disbelief, the stench of vomit burning his nostrils nearly making him wretch as well.

"Sorry Reid, Penn sometimes gets carsick. That's why we call him Pukey Penn," Ethan informed him, rather belatedly.

"Why didn't one of his parents drive if they know that he gets carsick?" Reid asked in disbelief.

"Oh, his mom did drive. Penn wanted to come with me, so Ms. Marshall put him in my group," Ethan explained.

"Great," Reid huffed out. "We'll be back at the school soon and you boys can get cleaned up then. Please try not to get vomit all over my car."

"Sorry, Dr. Oliver," Penn managed to squeak out. "I really thought that I'd be fine."

"Uh huh," Reid muttered, thankfully turning into the school parking lot.

The boys piled out of the car, Penn and Bruce trying not to make anymore of a mess than they already had.

Ms. Marshall approached Reid, "Where are the boys?"

"I imagine they're in the restroom cleaning up as much of their residual puke as possible." Reid replied glaring at the teacher.

"Oh my goodness, are the boys okay? Why aren't you helping them clean up. I hope they aren't coming down with something. I'll just go and speak to Penn's mother so that we can check on them," she finished and quickly hurried away.

Reid stood gaping at the teacher for a moment. "Idiot," he muttered to himself as he reached for his phone.

"Luke, you'd better get your ass over to the school," Reid commanded. "NOW!"

"Reid what's wrong?" Luke asked, worriedly and then sighed when he realized that Reid had already hung up.

Fortunately, Luke's meeting had ended a few minutes earlier, so he grabbed his jacket and headed off to Ethan's school.

Reid was easy to spot; he was standing in front of the school scowling at a woman that Luke recognized as Penn's mother. Luke could see the pair standing in profile so he could see that she was going red in the face and appeared rather flustered.

"Uh oh," Luke uttered aloud as he quickly walked toward them.

"I just don't understand why you would subject someone else to your child's barf. I understand why you wouldn't want him in your car, but he's your son," Reid barked at the woman.

"Good grief!" she replied angrily. "He's just a little boy; he didn't mean to do it. He wanted to go with Ethan and Ethan wanted to go with you. What's the big deal? It's just a little bit of vomit!"

"It's not a 'little bit of vomit…" Reid started.

"Is Penn okay?" Luke interrupted, putting a calming hand on Reid's arm.

"Penn," Reid spluttered, but Luke gave him a look that kept him from continuing.

"Oh Luke," Penn's mother greeted him warmly, leaning in to hug him. "Penn's fine, thank goodness. You know how he is. He just got a little bit carsick. He's mostly embarrassed and worried that Dr. Oliver is mad at him."

"I'm not mad at **him**," Reid said meaningfully.

"Would you like me to clean out your car?" she asked.

"No, I want it detailed professionally."

"Why don't you just worry about Penn, I'll make sure that Reid's car is taken care of," Luke assured her.

"Thanks Luke," she responded with a weak smile. "Send me the bill," she added knowing he wouldn't.

"Bye," Luke answered, nodding.

"You're not going to send her the bill are you?" Reid asked, but it was really a statement.

Luke shrugged. "How are you? I'm sorry that you had to deal with this. I didn't know that you would get stuck with Puking Penn."

Reid nodded, "It's not your fault. I'd better call AAA so they can tow my car to the dealership. Will you give me a ride home?"

Luke laughed. "Sure, I can do that. Don't worry about your car! I'll take care of it. Give me your keys. I'm not afraid of a little barf."

"It's not a little vomit; Bruce puked sympathetically right after Penn. We'd better make sure that Ethan isn't totally traumatized by the whole experience."

"I really am sorry about all of this," Luke apologized sincerely.

"It's not your fault," Reid acknowledged, "but you still owe me," he teased.

"I'm sure you'll be flexible in your repayment plan," Luke teased back.

"Flexible being the key word," Reid nodded and then they looked up and saw Ethan heading towards them.

"Luke!" He squealed. "Can I go home in your car? Reid's stinks," he stated making a face. "No offense."

"Yeah," Reid agreed. "None taken, I'm not getting back into my car anytime soon either."

"Yeah, that was pretty gross," Ethan added. "Kinda cool though. I'm glad that I've got such a strong stomach. I hate throwing up."

"Can we talk about something else, please? I'll take care of Reid's car after I drop you guys off," Luke stated relieved that he could see Natalie walking towards them.

"Wow Luke, why are you here? I thought that Reid would drive us home," Natalie greeted them.

"Please don't ask," Luke begged. "Let's just go home. Reid I'll drop you off first, okay?"

"Sure that'd be great!"

Several hours later, Luke showed up at Reid's place with food from Al's and a smile on his face!

"Hey! What are you doing here?" Reid asked. "I thought you'd be home with the kids."

"I dropped the kids at the farm with Grandma Emma for the night, so that I could come over and pay my debt properly," Luke smiled shyly. "Unless you're too busy or something, I guess I should have called first."

"You're an idiot!" Reid said grabbing Luke's arm and pulling him into his apartment. After kissing Luke warmly on the lips he took a moment to gaze into Luke's eyes. "I'm never too busy for you, and you never, ever have to call first. You're always welcome here. Always," Reid reiterated hoping that the message was clear. "Now let's eat. I have a feeling that I'm going to need all of my strength in a little while."

"Me too," Luke laughed.

End Notes: I have been on this field trip. Neither of my kids have ever gotten car sick, but one of my son's friends got sick all over him on the way home from the aquarium. UGH! The other boy's mother also drove on that field trip and I'm still not sure why I got stuck with puking boy. *sigh*

Also I don't know about the US or Illinois in particular but here in BC you have to hand in a criminal records check before you can volunteer for any school activities. You don't need a printout of your driving record but you do have to sign a form swearing that you a good driver and that your car is in good working order. I just imagined that Luke would phone Jack and pick up copies on his way to Ethan's school. LOL.


End file.
